Forgotten Dreams
by Nara Merald
Summary: [Otogi Zoshi] “One day you’ll stop dreaming and turn your sights to an ordinary man, Hikaru. Then, and only then, will I truly leave.” Mansairaku x Hikaru


**Forgotten Dreams  
**By Nara Merald

**Summary:** "One day you'll stop dreaming and turn your sights to an ordinary man, Hikaru. Then, and only then, will I truly leave." MansairakuxHikaru  
**Disclaimers:** I do not own Otogi Zoshi. I make no profit from this story. Warnings for obscurity, and pieces. This storyline is neither fluid nor fully explained.

**Forgotten Dreams**

She remembered it easily; the moment Raiko returned and history rewrote itself forever. With the chip of the Magatama in place, things were as they should have been.  
She had her friends, she had her brother… Mansairaku had vanished.

In the days that followed, Hikaru's life had been a whirlwind, a confused roller coaster of emotional highs and lows as she delighted in Raiko's presence after a lonely and frustrating year, tried to reconcile the memories she shouldn't have of her past life in the Heian period… and as she tried to come to terms with Mansairaku's shocking betrayal.

Even thinking about it now left a horrible feeling, a tense uncomfortable ball in her stomach coming from the fact that the stranger she'd grown to look for, to rely on, to trust with her _life_… had killed all of her friends, and indeed her as well, even if it was in a past life.

And that made it all the harder for Hikaru to admit that she missed him. Hikaru told herself that she would rather Raiko than Mansairaku, but it didn't stop her from looking around her, waiting unconsciously for him to step out of the shadows and lead her into another mystery. And it didn't help the jagged hollow pieces of longing inside her when she remembered the times she'd met him, the times he'd saved her, the times he'd saved them all.  
Then came the dreams.

* * *

At first he just stood there enigmatically, remaining silent even as she screamed at him, begged him, hit him. When she awoke, she felt his loss as keenly as if he were standing there beside her, slipping through her fingers. 

"_Don't you remember Raiko?"_

"_Remember what? You're not making sense Hikaru!" _

"_Everything!"_

"_I don't understand…"_

_A sigh. "I know. It was all just a dream…"_

Finally she grew silent in her dreams, and simply watched him as he did her, with a quiet desperation to her. Finally Hikaru asked her question.

"Why are you here?"

"You are binding me here, even as we speak, though I can only be present in your dreams," he answered.

* * *

Setsuna and Urabe became engaged and Raiko grew enamored with their next-door neighbor, Sadamitsu flirted with every girl in a 5-metre radius and Hikaru stayed alone, never dating, but thinking on his answer. Even Raiko noticed, commenting that she had changed during his absence, and the others were at a loss to explain it. Mansairaku had never existed for them. 

"Hey Hikaru, why don't you ever have a boyfriend?" Kintaro asked curiously, and Hikaru started, feeling their eyes on her.

"I did once," She sighed, gazing through them.  
"What? When?!" Setsuna roared as Raiko and the others laughed.

"You met him once…" Hikaru told Setsuna, "…but maybe it was just a dream," she finished quietly.

_"Will you stay with me, Mansairaku?"_

"_As long as your heart calls for me." _

"_What does that mean?" _

"_One day you'll stop dreaming and turn your sights to an ordinary man, Hikaru. Then, and only then, will I truly leave." _

"_How could I forget you?"_ Hikaru cried passionately, stepping to him until their lips met, melting into him as his arms folded around her. They stayed that way until morning woke her, the conscious girl never hearing her dream whisper "Already you doubt…" as she reimmersed herself in the real world.

* * *

_"Stop dreaming Hikaru! You can't lock yourself away forever! This is the real world!" _

_"How can you understand?! Just leave me alone Raiko!"_

"_You've turned into a completely different person Hikaru!"_

"_Setsuna, you too?… I wish everything was as simple as it was before…"_

_"Wait, Hikaru…!"_

Hikaru had thought about telling them the truth; one day she'd come right out with it.

"Hey Raiko, you know the year you went away? You actually disappeared and Setsuna and I spent all year investigating ghost stories trying to find you!" She'd said quite truthfully, and Raiko had stared at her a moment before Setsuna laughed. The end result had been Urabe trying to tactfully explain what drugs were to Kintaro as Sadamitsu laughed his ass off.

Life had continued, her days filled with lonely wishes, and her nights filled with solemn promises, arms around her, her hands running through his crimson hair.

"_What happens if I die, Mansairaku?"_

"_I will find you, Hikaru."_

"_I wish you could be here with me."_

"_I…do not exist." _

Raiko, watching his sister sleep, heard her whispered "Mansairaku…"; saw the tear roll down her face as she hugged her pillow and dreamt on.

* * *

They'd always wondered at Hikaru's stories of the Heian period; the legends she spun were fantastic, if a little unbelievable. While they fit the facts well enough that they could almost have been truth, the fact that she'd used their names made Raiko, Sadamitsu and Setsuna decide she was a brilliant storyteller, but not an accurate historian. Urabe had always been surprisingly willing to believe Hikaru, though she was quiet in her belief, and Kintaro loved the thought that he was part of a legend. 

Her favourite, or her least favourite, was the tale of the five Magatamas, and Seimei, traitor to his people and the land. Still they pressed Hikaru to reveal the true identity of Seimei, but all she would say was that her protagonist, Minamoto no Hikaru of the Heian era had met and trusted a nameless dancer, and that he and Seimei had been one and the same in the end. Watching and listening with narrowed eyes, Raiko saw the emotions Hikaru unwittingly revealed, flitting across her face as if she had truly lived the hardships, adventure, friendships and betrayal.  
Hikaru was not a good actor.

"Mansairaku," Raiko said, as he and Hikaru made breakfast in the kitchen.

"What?!" Hikaru gasped, spinning around so quickly that she'd knocked her glass of water off of the bench.

"You say his name when you dream," Raiko said quietly, watching her intently.

"Oh, how strange. I never remember my dreams," Hikaru lied.

Raiko never pointed out that her full sentence was "Mansairaku… you were Seimei all along…" and that her fists had clenched in her sleep, and her mouth had turned down.

* * *

It had started innocently enough, with Sadamitsu blackmailing Hikaru into a date. 

Mansairaku had simply said "One day you will forget me; it is inevitable," and Hikaru had unthinkingly slapped him in the dream.

The next night there was a glass wall between them. Hikaru shattered it, and the shards rained down, slicing him, spilling his blood. Hikaru gasped and stepped back from him in horror.

The next night she dreamed about the sea.

* * *

On her wedding day, she'd dressed in white and shed tears of helpless fury. Urabe had been delighted to be the maid of honor and her fiancee's sisters had been bridesmaids, Setsuna and Sadamitsu were proud to be groomsmen, Kintaro was the ringbearer and Raiko walked her down the isle.  
_"Raiko, you scared me!"_

"_You don't love him, do you?"_

"_What?! I'm marrying him!"_

"_But you don't love him…" _

"_No…I don't love him."_

"Do you need anything, ma'am?" the nurse asked the elderly lady.

"He promised he'd wait for me. He said he'd find me," The lady smiled.

"Your husband ma'am?" The nurse inquired politely, checking Minamoto Hikaru's stats on the health chart.

"Oh no, not him, my husband died three years ago. I'm talking about…" The lady wheezed, gasped for a breath that never came.

_"Hikaru."_

"_Mansairaku…"_

She died with a smile on her face.


End file.
